Busted: The Myth of Being Busy
To appear busy is to appear valuable. But when we peel back the layers, we often find that busyness is not a universal metric—it’s highly personal, based on our own operating system, comfort levels, and habits.
Do you remember the Myth Bastards series? I’ll admit it from the start: I’m not presenting scientific data here. But I’m pretty sure this one’s simple—
The myth of being busy is (officially) Busted!
If you work in a corporate environment—or frankly, just navigate everyday social interactions—you’ve probably heard it countless times...
“I’m so busy.”
It’s almost become a reflex—a default response—when someone asks how things are going. But here’s the truth I’ve come to believe: most of the time, “I’m busy” isn’t a fact, but rather a quick, reactive excuse—a story we’ve chosen to put on repeat, or even a subtle way of asking for validation.
We have conditioned ourselves to equate busyness with importance. To appear busy is to appear valuable. But when we peel back the layers, we often find that busyness is not a universal metric—it’s highly personal, based on our own operating system, comfort levels, and habits. And too often, our so-called “busyness” is nothing more than a stack of avoidances, distractions, and inefficient loops that keep us spinning without real output.
